Yay! People actually read it! I'm so happy. Thanks for the reviews. You made Jessi happy! :)
And instead of changing POV's thru all the chapters, they are all Roxas (UNLESS I STATE OTHERWISE).
So yeah, it was a little difficult for me to think of an idea for this chapter, but I got it! Muahahaha! A little later on the story's going to get a little deeper into Axel's mysterious past, and in this chapter, his pyromaniac ways will be shown. And Hayner wishes to instruct Namine in the art of growing some balls (a.k.a. standing up for herself).
So far, Roxas's parents are nameless. I really should give them names. It's the third chapter after all. You know what? Roxas's parents are going to be Cloud and Aerith. There, now they have names.
Don't forget to review!!!
!!
Chapter 3
Prologue
Next time I have Hayner and Axel in the same room, I think I'm going to push Hayner out the window. I mean, Axel looked like he was about to kill Hayner!
What could have been so bad that Axel wouldn't even tell Namine about his parents? I thought that they were like, extremely close, and he was overly protective of Namine? Oh well. I think I'll just file this into my never-going-to-be-solved box.
!!
It was Eleven p.m. Namine's family had come over around noon… and they were still here. I was drained, and Hayner was snoring on the couch. Why are they even still here? At this rate, they're going to have the whole wedding planned tonight.
I thought about Axel sitting in the car. He'd left to go sit in there over 10 hours ago. He had to be getting bored. Or maybe he was just sleeping. Either way, I wanted to sleep too, but I didn't want to deal with my parents reprimanding me. Namine had dark circles under her eyes, and I wondered if she was in the same position as I. She wanted to sleep, but didn't want the reprimanding.
Hayner snorted loudly, and I kicked him in the leg.
"Huh, what?" He shot up, and looked around confusedly. Namine and I laughed when we saw that Hayner had lines from the beaded couch pillows on his face.
Hayner stretched. "Can we go back into the den? I'm tired of hearing about weddings."
I nodded. I was tired of hearing about it too, but there was no way that I was going to get around that one. As long as my parents were my parents, weddings would be the primary talk of conversations.
When we got to the den, I threw myself onto a couch, Hayner fell onto the floor, and Namine sat on the loveseat.
Hayner said something into the carpet.
I threw a pillow at him. "What did you say?'
He rolled over. "I wasn't talking to you."
"It's not like either of us could really hear you anyway." I said.
"I was asking Namine why her parents seem to not like Axel." He said. "I'm guessing he was adopted, right?"
Namine nodded. "Yeah, he was adopted. It's obvious, due to the red hair, and all of us being blonde. But I guess my parents don't like the fact that they couldn't control him. They adopted him when they were told my mom couldn't get pregnant. But then she did with me, and Axel told me that was about the time that they stopped caring about him. He became more mischievous. He told me that it was attempts to get them to notice him again, but they didn't really pay attention. My mom told me that he used to be a good little boy. I asked her once why they stopped loving Axel after I was born, but my mom slapped me. She never really explained why, but I just dropped the subject."
Hayner whistled. "Wow."
"Axel did tell me one little thing about his real parents though." Namine said.
"Really?" Hayner asked. "Tell us."
"All he said was that he was glad to have a new family. He was glad that someone had adopted him, and saved him from them. But all of that flew out the window when I was born. He isn't mad at me about it though. I don't get it. He finally had happiness, and then I was born. But instead of hating me, he loves me so much, and he's always there for me. He may not seem like it, but Axel's such a great guy."
I stared at her for a moment. "Namine, you don't blame yourself for Axel being unhappy, do you?"
I noticed a small tear roll down her cheek. "I was born, wasn't I? That's when my parents started to alienate him."
I walked over to the loveseat, and put my arm around her. "Can you really help what your parents did, Namine? You can't blame yourself for this!"
"If your parents are such assholes, why do you do what they tell you? Why are you going along with this arranged marriage if you don't want to do it?" Hayner asked.
"Same reason as Roxas." None of us had noticed Axel standing in the doorway of the den. "The one quality that I don't admire about Nami. Her and Roxas are too afraid of their parents' reaction of them saying no. They don't want to be cut off." Axel waved me out of the seat next to Namine. I moved, and he took the seat and wrapped his arms around Namine.
I sat back on the big couch. Axel might have had a point. I hate the fact that they're making me do all this arranged marriage crap.
"I mean, come on you guys. I know you don't want to anger them, but why are you letting them get away with something that you hate? I know you both don't want to do this." Axel wiped one of the tears from Namine's face.
"It's not that easy to say no." I said. "I love my parents, no matter how much I hate how they make me do this. I mean, Namine, you're really nice and everything, I'm just not ready to be married. But, I also want to make my parents happy. And I know if I say no, they wont talk to me ever again."
Namine nodded. "I feel the same way, you know? I love them, but I know that if I turn my back on them, I will lose them."
Axel tightened his grip on her. "Namine, I'll go along with whatever makes you happy, but you're too young to get married."
I almost slapped myself in the forehead. I didn't even know how old Namine was. "How old are you, Namine?"
Axel looked at me. "Namine's sixteen."
"What?!" Hayner sat up, and turned to face them.
This wasn't quite a shock to me, as I've been going through the same thing since I was fifteen. But I couldn't understand how any parent could hand her off when she seemed so young. She was more fragile and naïve to the world than I was. It seemed to me that her parents were basically getting rid of her.
"She's too young to get married." Axel said.
"My parents have been doing this to me since I was fifteen, but until now they always let me say no. Just because I was young. And they told me that if I liked anyone they would wait until I was at least eighteen to make me marry her." I said.
Axel nodded. "Our parents are making her, despite the fact that she's only sixteen. And they said that the wedding was in a few weeks, right?"
I nodded.
Larxene stuck her head in the room. "Namine, we have to go now. It's late."
Namine nodded and grabbed Axel's hand. They walked out of the room, and Axel glanced at me before disappearing behind the door. I heard everyone's goodbyes, and then Hayner and I walked out into the kitchen. My parents were talking excitedly about something.
"What's going on?" I asked mom.
"Honey, Larxene told us today why she wanted to rush the wedding so much." My mom smiled. "She wanted the wedding to happen so soon because she's pregnant! Isn't that great! That means that you're going to be an uncle!"
Hayner and I looked at each other.
"She wanted to get you two happily married and living together so she and Luxord could have time to get ready for the new baby! Namine doesn't know yet though, so don't tell her."
Get ready for the new baby, my ass. They were doing to Namine exactly what they did to Axel. But their way of alienating her was marrying her off and making her move in with me. It doesn't surprise me that they haven't told Namine yet. If Namine knew, she would know what was going on.
She would know exactly what was going on.
Something had to be done about this. But did I want to be the one to hurt her this way?
&!&!
Hayner spent the night. We were fairly silent, and we both had the same things running through our minds. I laid on my bed, and he took the couch that was in my room. We both stared at the ceiling. I didn't turn the lights out until I heard Hayner's faint snore.
I wasn't tired anymore. I was worried about what was going to befall Namine. If I married her, then that would probably be the last time that her parents would bother to talk to her. And If I didn't marry her, then her parents would still have the baby, and then she would be turned out, and would probably go live with Axel. Maybe that was what she wanted, but I know that she still wanted contact with her parents.
I didn't know what to do.
&!&!
Hayner and I were sitting at the table eating cereal when my mom and dad sat down.
My mom nibbled on some toast. "Honey, Luxord, Larxene, and Namine are coming over again today. We want to get wedding plans all done a.s.a.p."
I nodded. I still hadn't decided whether to tell Namine about her parents or not.
"So Hayner, how long are you staying?" My dad asked. I was glad that he got Hayner's name right this time.
Hayner shrugged.
"Are you going home today?"
He shrugged at again.
"Do your parents even know that you're gone?"
He shook his head. He finished his cereal, and a maid took his bowl.
"You parent's don't know? They must be out of their mind worrying? Would you like our chauffer (is that even how to spell that?) to drive you?"
Hayner shook his head. "No thanks, I drove over here. I'll probably leave today because I have to return about twenty cans of spray paint." He glared at me.
"Hey, why don't I come with you?" I asked.
"Honey, your fiancé's coming over today." My mom said. "You can't."
Mom's right. I don't want to doom Namine into the hell of planning weddings. It would be unfair for me to leave her here (as much as I wanted to leave).
I finished my bowl. "Hayner, let's go back up to my room."
We left the kitchen. In my room, Hayner flipped onto my bed. "So why don't you wait until Namine gets here and then we can go somewhere. I'm sure she doesn't want to hang around here all the time."
I shook my head. "I don't know whether her parents would go for that."
We were silent for a moment. "Hey, you know that if you marry Namine, you're like a pedophile."
I glanced at him. Eww… he was right… She was only sixteen. Technically still a minor.
I felt slightly gross thinking about that.
We were silent again.
"That girl really needs to grow some balls."
"Heh?"
"She needs to learn to stand up for herself! Hey, why don't we take Namine to my house, and instruct her in growing-a-pair 101!" Hayner became excited. "I could have fun with this…"
I laughed. That would be funny, but I don't know whether Namine would go for that though. "I don't really think that's a good idea."
The phone rang, and I heard my mom answer it.
A few minutes later, my mom strode up the stairs. She poked her head in my room. "Bad news honey. They can't make it today… apparently Axel did something… um, bad."
"What did he do?"
"He set one of Luxord's garages on fire."
Hayner snorted.
I bit my lip; I wanted to laugh so hard. "Why did he do that?"
My mother shrugged. "Apparently Axel has a bit of a pyromaniac-ish streak. This isn't exactly the first time that he's set something on fire." She clicked her tongue. "That boy is so corrupted."
Hayner started to laugh, and my mom glared at him.
"So no planning today?" I hoped.
"No, sorry, not today, but we are going over there, though. Apparently Luxord's upset because he had a car worth about one million dollars in that garage. We need to be there for our future family. So get dressed, and be downstairs in about a half hour, kay?" She glanced at Hayner. "I'm sorry Hayner, but this is a strictly-family event." She closed the door.
"Bitch." Hayner breathed. "But whatever. I have to return the spray paint anyway." He loaded up the cans of paint. "See you, man."
I watched him struggle to open the door.
So, Axel's a pyro, huh?
Interesting.
Very interesting.
&!&!
Okay, I know the whole Namine being so young thing is kinda strange, but trust me, kay? It will all work out!
Please Review!
